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Wheels Up (Teterboro) is planning its initial public offering (IPO) within the next 12 to 18 months, CEO Kenny Dichter said at NBAA 2018.

As reported by AIN Online, the business charter specialist has already consulted the plan with financial advisors, although it is yet to select partners for its IPO. Dichter admitted that the five-year-old company was so far loss-making, but said he hoped that the EBITDA would be positive in 2019. He did not reveal how much Wheels Up would be looking at raising from the IPO.

The business charter specialist is also planning to launch operations in Europe, where it has already identified eighty-five aircraft for possible management on the continent.

According to the Wichita Eagle paper, the order will bring to seventy-five, the number of King Airs in service for Wheels Up.

The purchase comes on the back of a USD90 million debt funding commitment from New York-based private equity firm, KKR & Co.

As part of its growth plans, Wheels Up will also add an unspecified number of Cessna Citation Xs to its portfolio which, aside from the King Airs, also includes fifteen pre-owned Cessna Citation Excel/XLS business jets.

Wheels Up (Teterboro) has begun offering commercial flights from any one of eighteen designated US gateways to and from Havana Int'l, Cuba the airline's founding partner Justin Firestone has announced.

"We're excited to be part of history as among the first of the American private aviation companies to make flights available to and from Havana," he said. "Wheels Up has arranged more than 150 flights between the U.S. and Cuba and are now averaging more than any other major U.S. private aviation provider."

The first flights began last year following the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba and have grown since then.